Elina (ilmatar) wrote in morningstar_mnr, @ 2009-11-25 18:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | emily, npc, vincenzo |
Wednesday afternoon, apt 7134, Vincenzo, Emily and her parents
With Emily's parents out for a while, Vinnie was taking the opportunity to help her around the apartment.
"Are these flowers still okay or shall I ditch them and put out the new ones?" he asked, a package of white and yellow spray chrysanthemums in one hand and a still fairly bright vase full in the other.
Emily turned to look with a knife in her hand - she was been cutting the cake ready for the afternoon coffee. She knew to arrange everything in advance so she would have time to supervise the discussions when her parents would return.
"Oh um, they look good to me, don't they? Maybe just change the water and they'll be alright," she said looking from one bunch of flowers to the other, and then at the man himself raising an eyebrow.
"Right," Vincenzo said. "I'll pop these spares in some water and stand them in the fridge." He carried both sets of flowers to the kitchen and as he carried on with the chores he asked, "How have they been? Your Mom and Dad I mean?"
"They're alright. Mom's been overly busy at work but Dad is mostly hoping he could already get on pension," she chuckled a little. "And they've been looking forward to seeing you again, no matter how much they've been trying to hide it."
Vincenzo had the sneaking feeling that they might want to see him to check for signs of decrepitude - possibly for terminal illnesses that might take him neatly off and leave Emily bereft so she could be hurried back to her family home again - because he doubted they actually had any particular liking for him.
But that was okay - the feeling was mutual.
"I've been looking forward to seeing them again, just as much," he said with a grin. "Oh - coffee jug could do with topping up. Or shall I brew fresh?"
"Fresh might be better, oh, you can pour some of the old in my mug over here," Emily offered the mug closer. "So... how are you feeling about this, seeing as last time... well, went like it did."
Vincenzo poured to coffee for her then went to wash out the machine preparatory to getting it going again. "I'm okay," he said. "They are bound to be wary. Hell, Mom and Romana and Enzo vet everyone my sister bring home. Can't see why your parents should be any different."
"Well I would still rather they weren't so harsh. But I think they're starting to see you're a little bit more than a toy boy," she giggled. "So it's not that bad really. Besides, you look good and you smell nice and you behave well without giving you any lectures in advance or me needing to pick your clothes so..." she paused and looked at him for a while. "Wow, I guess that makes you near perfect."
Vincenzo snickered and turned to coffee machine back on again hen turned to give her a squeeze. "If I kiss you am I going to smear your lip gloss?" he asked.
"Yes, but I can fix it before they come back," Emily promised with an infatuated smile and looked up at him and puckered her lips rather comically. She did put down the knife, however, in case Vinnie would sweep her away completely for a moment.
"Ah, good thought," he said, nodding to the knife and kissed her gently, at first. After a moment or two he sighed and said, "Sorry, you definitely need to repair it now."
Emily chuckled and slid her down hands along Vinnie's sides. "Yeah, I will, but that was worth it," she said and held him there with her for a while. "I think they'll be back in a moment but I need to say this now even though it might feel a little silly. I just... feel a little guilty for making you endure this," she sighed and squeezed him a little. "You know I love you, right? And about who you are and what you do, well, all that matters is that you're happy as you are. Right. Now I've assured you of that in advance."
"And now I'm really scared," Vincenzo said, though his lopsided grin gave that the lie. "What the hell are they planning on doing? Making an Italian security guard pie?"
"Mm-mmh, with fresh aromatic herbs," Emily joined the joke. "No don't worry, I've just been over-thinking this," she reassured him. "I'll go fix my lip gloss - they did say they'd be back by four o'clock and look at the time. Good thing you put the coffee on."
Vincenzo gave her another squeeze then patted her ass before turning to check on the prorgess of the coffee while Emily re-did her makeup.
While she was in the bathroom doing just that, there was a knock on the door. Emily mumbled something from the bathroom and came out with lip gloss fixed to open the door for her parents.
"Good timing, we just put coffee on!" she said letting both Catherine and Stephen in.
"Excellent, thank you," her mother answered as they took off their coats. "Oh it was good to get to stretch my legs properly, wasn't it, Stephen?"
"Mmh," the tall silverfox man grunted as an answer and took off his glasses for a moment to wipe them clean.
Vincenzo had been placing the coffee on the table ready for Emily's parents but he too came to meet them, taking their coats with a smile. "Hello," he said. "I'll hang those for you. What's the weather doing? I haven't looked outside today."
"Thank you, Vinnie," Catherine said with a polite smile to him as he took her jacket, and continued babbling. "Oh, can I call you Vinnie? That's how Emily always talks about you so that's what I think of you as these days."
"At least it's not raining," Emily pointed out in the middle of it seeing their jackets, and Stephen answered to her instead of Vincenzo, "No. It's warmer than it looks, actually."
"Of course you may call me Vinnie," Vincenzo said to Catherine. "We're lucky, it could easily be snowing. Guess we'll have to make the most of it."
With the coats and scarves put away, Emily herded everyone to the kitchen. "Go on, sit down everyone! I'll bring the goodies for you and - oh you already have coffee, good!" she noticed and beamed at Vincenzo.
Catherine was the first to sit down with her husband following her lead, and she pointed at the chair right next to hers beckoning Vincenzo to sit down there. "So how have you been? You look good, apparently you've managed to work off all the treats Emily has forced you to eat as a test subject."
Vincenzo took the offered seat and patted his stomach. "It's an active job," he said, "which is just as well. We have a lot of ground to cover on an eight hour shift. Though I admit that some of us cover it faster than others. You're both looking well. Has the summer been good to you?"
"The summers are too hot and the fires always worry," Catherine said but on a perky tone nonetheless. "But we were rather upset that you two came all the way to California and did not make a detour to L.A. to see us!"
"It's not like we had many days to spare in the first place," Emily defended when she joined bringing with her two large plates of all sorts of delightful things that she had baked and prepared.
"My fault, I'm afraid," Vincenzo said with a smile. "When I arrived I'd been awake nearly forty hours with the travelling after a long shift so I was a bit too dopey the first day to think beyond picking Emily up and congratulating her on her win."
"Aww, it's been a good year, hasn't it! First the competition won and then the Michelin stars..." Catherine sighed proudly and Emily looked down at her coffee cup with a modest blush.
"Let's not forget you did get mugged and robbed too," Stephen pointed out sourly and looked at his daughter as if looking for signs of it to still be showing. "I can't believe the bastards still haven't been caught."
"It's a menace," Vincenzo said. "These casual opportunistic thieves are hard to find because they are so hard to identify. Emily isn't alone, four other female tenants have been attacked as well. Chief Abrams is furious about it. Even Amarie is being careful not to go out alone after dark.""
"Oh that's just terrible," Catherine shook her head. "Emily's told us you pick her up from work in the evenings. I have to say that has put our minds at peace, even though, well, it came a little late."
"I just don't understand why she wouldn't get a car, it would be a lot safer and practical than that silly scooter," Stephen said and Emily rolled her eyes.
"The first girl and the most recent one were mugged on their way to their cars," Vincenzo pointed out. "Of course, once you're inside it you're safer but you still have to get there."
"Yes, it probably wouldn't have made much difference for me either, you never know," Emily shrugged. "I've come to consider myself a little lucky that I got off with as little as I did in the end, and got so much help from friends, and Vinnie."
"Hardly the point - it was already a step over the line when they attacked you," Stephen said sternly. "Nonetheless... I admit I'm relieved to have my little girl in one piece. Like she said," he nodded towards his wife turning to talk directly to Vincenzo finally, "it's good to have you picking her up from work."
"I'm lucky to work here," Vincenzo admitted. "Most places wouldn't allow it but my boss wants my mind on my job and is very flexible like that."
"In that case you're both very lucky to have such great places to work at in this time and age. It was different back in our time, when you got a job it was yours to keep, but now everyone needs to be a little opportunistic and selfish to look out for themselves," Catherine went on while Stephen remained in his usual grumpy silence.
"Give and take," Vincenzo said. "The boss knows that if he really needed me I'd send a cab for Emily and stay to work. And the managers at the restaurant have been quite sensible about making sure people get away at set times. You don't mind hanging around for half an hour at six in the evening but it's edgier at one ay em."
"Yes, quite. Lord knows that girl always wanted to do everything the hard way. Studying far away from home and traveling alone and ending up in a job with inconvenient and long hours..." Stephen shook her head.
"I really like it how you talk about me like I'm not here," Emily muttered and sipped her coffee. "But hey, at least now I finally feel like sticking around, right? No need to hold your breaths waiting for when I would move on again."
"God and Gregory Rushenko willing," Vincenzo said with a smile.
Emily was in the middle of chewing a piece of cake so she had no chance to say anything before her mother raised her eyebrows at Vincenzo. "Oh, who?"
"Rushenko?" Vincenzo said and grinned. "The one who offered her the TV chef job."
Emily coughed and flustered as the cake piece got stuck in her throat while the parents glanced at each other.
"Ugh, oh God," Emily finally breathed out and took a sip of her coffee.
"What TV chef job? Emily?" Catherine asked looking completely baffled. Stephen also leaned forwards, patted his daughter's back but there was a frown on his brow saying that he did not understand either.
"Oh it's uh, nothing, just something that came up a while ago but nothing's changed," Emily tried her best to hand-wave the whole thing but as usual, she wasn't being very convincing. She was clearly very uncomfortable and even though she could breath again properly, the fluster on her face did not disappear.
"A job as a TV chef came up a while ago? What's this - you haven't mentioned it!" Catherine said and glanced at Vincenzo.
"Yeah... I sure... didn't..." Emily muttered awkwardly trying hard not to blame Vincenzo for spurting it out.
"Lovely cake, not so good for breathing," Vincenzo said, misinterpreting the colour in her cheeks. "I'll get you some water, hun," he offered and got up.
"I don't understand - you got offered a job as a TV chef and you didn't even consider it?" Stephen asked sounding incredulous.
"Oh I did..." Emily said vaguely and glanced at Vincenzo with a painful expression thinking back to it. She sure had considered it, but not for a moment had she thought about telling her parents about it because she knew they would only pressure and influence her. "But it was kind of inconvenient... I like my job here, I like living here, and I would have needed to move to San Francisco for it and... well, the publicity and all sort of scare me anyway."
"Em! That sounds like it was a big deal! Come along now, honey, tell us, what was it all about?" Catherine urged her.
"Well... I don't know if you remember but Gregori Rushenko was in CIA with me at the same time. Only that nowadays he's a TV producer, he does cooking shows. I met him at the contest in the summer and then a few months later he appeared here. Offered me the job," Emily explained with a strained voice. "He had the concept and set and the go-ahead already for it... it would have been big. Nation-wide. But I didn't want to leave."
Stephen's eyebrows had risen up on his forehead while he had listened, but now suddenly lowered to a frown. "Emily, think about it! What sort of an opportunity you just threw to the wind! You could have gotten so much more name and fame and get paid so much better - I thought you would have been the last one to ignore such a career move!"
"I don't exactly want a career move anymore! I'm the chef of the best restaurant in the city and I enjoy where I live, I have friends and," Emily looked up at Vincenzo returning to the table with a small smile on her lips. "And I have Vinnie. I don't want to leave all this behind."
Catherine and Stephen seemed to tense up immediately and they both looked at Vincenzo. Catherine made a move to touch her husband's shoulder to calm him down, to save this for a private moment, but there was no way he was going to let this slide now.
"You - you refused an offer like that because of some man? Because of, of him?!" Stephen raised his voice and pointed at Vincenzo.
Vincenzo put the glass where Emily could reach it and held up both hands. "He stepped back and gave Emily space to make up her own mind what she wanted," he said. "It was her decision to make. I've always known how important her career is to her so don't assume that I pressured her into deciding one way or the other."
"That's funny, because this is the first time Emily has ever let a big career move slide like this," Stephen nearly growled. "I should have guessed you were involved somehow. Didn't I tell you that his sort is no good for you?" he turned to Emily again.
"Are you listening, dad?" Emily set her hands on the table and leaned forward with her eyes narrowed angrily. "He didn't pressure me into anything!"
"But because of him you rejected your career!"
"I have a career right here!"
"You would have gone if it wasn't for him, wouldn't you?"
Emily stared at her father.
"Wouldn't you?!"
"That's beside the point!" she waved her hand in a frustrated move and looked down.
"It certainly isn't! He's holding you back and you know it! I can't believe you let him do this to you - the things you could have achieved if you had accepted that offer!"
"And I can't believe how you blame Vinnie for my choices!"
"Because your stupid feminine feelings got the better of you and you don't see that he's manipulating you!" Stephen bellowed.
"Don't. Shout. At. Emily." Vincenzo's voice cracked out in a parade ground snap that cut over Stephen's last word. "If you wish to discuss this, fine. But be civil. Don't call her stupid and I won't call you an abusive bully."
"Excuse me?" Stephen glared at Vincenzo and stood up from his chair. He ignored Emily trying to get a word in, waving her hands on stumbling up as well. "Am I an abusive bully for protecting my daughter from her own deceiving feelings? She has clearly lost all rationality but she will come to realize in time how stupid it is to throw away her life for a man."
"Dad! I'm not throwing away my life!" Emily finally got to say at a very snappy strained voice. "And this is no way to treat Vinnie, you have no idea how wonderfully he handled the situation!"
"Oh he handled it, did he? It's your life, Emily, and nothing else should matter, the least of all a petty security guard who will not have the means to support you no matter how much you would romanticise being a house wife!"
Emily shrieked a shocked "WHAT" and finally Catherine got up from her chair as well. "Now now my dear I think you are overreacting a little bit... I mean, I can't believe Emily would let anyone influence her into not advancing her career but..."
"Too damn right I didn't influence her," Vincenzo said. "And I damn nearly lost her. Why she made the choice she did I have no idea but I very much doubt that my financial prospects influenced her one way or the other. The only possible thing I can think of is that I trusted her to make up her own mind what was best for her. In a year or two she might change her mind. I hope she won't but if she does then I'll live with it, because I love her, and I want her to be happy. Can you say the same?"
Stephen looked like he did not want to hear a word Vincenzo was saying mostly because he desperately wanted to be angry at him. For a moment he was clutching the backrest of the chair in his hands biting his teeth together - until he saw the way Emily was looking at Vincenzo. Catherine saw it too, and put a hand on Stephen's arm, who then sighed deeply and looked down.
"Thank you for the coffee," he said, turned and left the room abruptly without looking at anyone in the eyes.
It could not have been more awkward, but after a while of thick silence Catherine asked on a soft tone from Emily, "Are you really happy here?"
"Yes. That's why I stayed. I haven't felt this much at home since... I don't even remember when."
"In that case... I'd better go talk to him," Catherine sighed and then looked at Vincenzo with some difficulty, the redness of embarrasment on her face. "Have a, um, happy Thanksgiving, Vinnie." With that she left the room as well.
Vincenzo, furious and also horribly embarrassed, let out a breath then put both hands over his face. "Oh - fuck," he murmured then took his hands away. "I'm sorry hun," he said. "God, that was shameful. I nearly hit him."
Emily took the few steps necessary to reach him, and took his hands looking at him with eyes full of worry and distress. "No, no, I'm sorry. I should have, I... I shouldn't have put you into that situation," she said but closed her eyes for a moment. "Oh what a Thanksgiving this will be, once again."
Vincenzo held her tight. "Run away with me?" he suggested. "Come to the Tuscany and we'll eat too much linguini and listen to Mom and Chiara argue about the wedding."
Emily laughed a little but wiped the corner of her eye with her wrist - a sure sign that the scene had managed to shake her up more than a little. "I wish I could, sweetie, believe me, but I think I need to spend tonight arguing and explaining how I really want to stay right here with you, and at La Fee, and probably crying a little and not sleeping at all. You know, if we get all this arguing done today, we might actually have a bearable Thanksgiving tomorrow," she tried to think positive.
"Clear the air," Vincenzo said, more in hope than conviction, "and maybe you will." He touched her cheek the stooped to kiss it. "In any case I promise - promise - not to lose my temper again."
Emily snorted at him and shook her head although she was smiling a little. "Don't promise that, there's no need for you to be a doormat, sweetie. And I'm glad you're not," she said and leaned in to hug him and while she did, she pressed a kiss under his ear.
Vincenzo chuckled and gave her a squeeze. "Well if it's okay for me to practice my fisticuffs then cool. Best Thanksgiving we ever had, Dad lost it while carving the turkey, punched out my Uncle Giovanni and the carving knife ended up stuck in the ceiling. Pauolo and I had to get it down with a ladder next day."
Emily actually laughed at that and felt herself relax a little in his arms. "Well it's never been that bad, so I guess I feel a lot better now," she chuckled, but soon the smile faded away and she looked up into his eyes. "Listen, I need to go and... um... argue, but I will see you in the weekend, right? They'll be gone on Saturday evening."
"I'll be waiting," Vincenzo promised. "And in the meantime, if you need me, or need to take refuge, just give me a call and I'll be right there." He cupped her chin and looked into her eyes. "Please, try not to get upset. It's not fair that you should take the responsibility for our relationship."
"Maybe I just love you too much to even think of rolling any of this on you, hmm?" she said softly, almost whispering, and with his face so close already she only needed to raise up on her toes to give him a lingering kiss as if gathering strength from it.
Vincenzo kissed back then sighed and patted her back. "I don't like to leave you but if I don't go now I'll be late for my shift," he said. "Are you sure you'll be okay? Come down to mine if it gets too - intense."
"They're my mum and dad, that's all. We'll be fine. It won't be fun, I'm sure but... since when has Thanksgiving been fun. And hey?" she stopped him before he turned away. "I'm proud of you."
"And I of you," Vincenzo said. "You've no idea how much. Shit - time. I'll call you tomorrow," he said. "Not too early."
"Alright," she nodded and walked him to the door. "Give my love to the family tomorrow."
"Will do," he replied, and gave her another hug and kissed her ear. "Take care," he whispered, because he knew that while his family might shout and scream and throw things none of it really mattered and once the quarrel was over it was though it had never happened. But quietly spoken words could lacerate the soul.
Emily watched Vincenzo go and closed the door only when he vanished from her sight. She sighed heavily and stood alone by the door for a moment, until she turned and went to find her parents.